Headline: Caste the financial net
By David McWilliams
Source: The Sunday Business Post (Dublin). 13 March 2005 at http://www.thepost.ie/post/pages/p/story.aspx-qqqt=DAVID%20McWilliams-qqqs=commentandanalysis-qqqid=3090-qqqx=1.asp
Full text:
When Portuguese adventurers first arrived in India, drawn by the scent of spices and the lure of money, they set up their trading outpost in Goa.
By the middle of the 16th century, the streets of Lisbon were buzzing with stories of gold, spices, exotic women and ready-made fortunes.
The Orient was where it was at for any ambitious young man. As well as painted ladies, the word "casta'' became commonplace to describe the rigid Indian social hierarchy. Casta in Portuguese means race, breeding or lineage.
This is where the term caste, used to describe the Indian social system, comes from. Indians refer to it as the "jati'' system. There are 3,000 castes and 25,000 sub-castes in India, each related to a specific occupation. These different castes fall under four basic categories: Brahmins are priests; Kshatryas are warriors; Vaishyas are traders and Shudras are labourers.
Caste dictates one's occupation, dietary habits and interaction with members of other castes. Members of a high caste enjoy more wealth and opportunities, while members of a low caste perform menial jobs. At the bottom of the caste system are the Dalits or 'Untouchables'.
Untouchables' jobs, such as toilet cleaning and rubbish removal, require them to be in contact with bodily fluids.
They are therefore considered polluted and are not to be touched.
Back in the days of the Portuguese traders, such systems were common in many countries. Until the late 18th century, even modern, post-reformation Germany operated a system of Stande or status groups (where society was rigidly delineated into special groups).
Likewise, imperial Japan had its system of samurai, merchants and peasants.
These caste systems attempt to impose a functional order and stability on society, thus protecting elites from change.
Observing the recent developments in the Fyffes/DCC trial, it is easy to conclude that a similar caste system exists in the Irish financial community, where the nature, quality and size of the deal depends on a company's position in the financial hierarchy.
*The rest of the text has been deleted but can be found at http://www.thepost.ie/post/pages/p/story.aspx-qqqt=DAVID%20McWilliams-qqqs=commentandanalysis-qqqid=3090-qqqx=1.asp
**The Caste system is a relic of the past everywhere else. What role does the Church in Goa play in keeping it ticking?
Eddie Fernandes London
